Kansas City Royals 2015 MLB season preview and predictions
By Will Osgood
3 Keys for Success
- How do they handle success?
In past previews, this has generally been a category filled with more statistical reasoning. With the Royals it seems that much of their success in 2015 will be quantifiable, but not necessarily the result of sabermetrics.
Simply put, this organization has not begun a campaign coming off such success since 1986. It has never faced any serious expectations since then. And though the team added veteran talent in free agency to make up for the loss of departed veterans, it is still a team which must overcome a franchise’s terrible record over the last 30 years.
Are they up to it as an organization?
- Do the young players, now with postseason experience and success, grow or go back to their previous struggles?
We’ve already highlighted three key youngsters, in Moustakas, Hosmer and Ventura, but there are others who played key roles in last year’s magical run. Alex Gordon could be included in that, though his track record is one of stable excellence for about five years now.
The list also includes Lorenzo Cain—who produced plenty of magic singlehandedly last postseason, as did base-stealing and late-innings outfield extraordinaire Jarrod Dyson.
Even key relievers such as Kelvin Herrera, Aaron Crow and College World Series starter to MLB World Series reliever in the same year Brandon Finnegan must deal with having such success at such a young age and with so little relative big league experience.
Few teams have relied so greatly on youth as the Royals to make a World Series run. Generally, a team has one or two youthful players who stand out in the postseason, but rarely the majority of a roster. In the former cases, those players generally develop nicely long-term. But it’s far from a guaranteed thing.
- How do the newcomers mesh with the incumbent roster?
No team sport is as reliant on an individual’s performance as baseball. Thus, it is possible that one player’s performance—whether a newcomer or 2014 team member—will not have a huge effect on a new teammate. But the Royals are slightly different than the average 2015 team.
They have not eschewed bunting and base stealing. And defense is ultimately a team game reliant on communication and individual abilities. Those three elements of the game were most stringently pressed by the Royals on their road to becoming American League champions.
They may not try to copy their exact style from 2014, but to be equally successful in 2015 they will have to play a game at least similar to the one they mastered a season ago. And so the newcomers must embrace Royals baseball.
Next: What will the 2015 Royals do for an encore?